In 2018, Jair Bolsonaro shocked the world by winning Brazil’s presidential election after spending a large part of the campaign in the hospital, following a stabbing attack almost two months before election day. Two years later, another politician took this feat to the next level: in Goiânia — Brazil’s tenth-largest city — Maguito Vilela was elected mayor while fighting for his life in an intensive care unit, battling a severe case of Covid-19.
Admitted to the hospital late in October, Mr. Vilela had to be intubated hours prior to the first-round election on November 15. When the final...
